Discobot flag step requires any flag except "Something Else"

Hi, when running through the discobot new user tutorial, there is a prompt to flag a very mean message. However, if the kind of flag chosen is not “inappropriate” but one of the other options, the tutorial hangs. I don’t see a way to add another flag to the post once it has been flagged for another reason besides “inappropriate.” Is there a way for discobot to say, “You flagged my post, but not for being inappropriate. Let’s try again!”

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That isn’t a bug; the instructions indicate which flag type to use. So at best this would be an enhancement.

(also @tgxworld I’d expect any flag type to work, really… except contact staff which is a different thing.)

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I agree with this 100%. If I had an instance where I wanted some of the flag options (including the inappropriate one) hidden via CSS, discobot would essentially be broken aside from overriding the step completely and telling the user to skip. Edge case of course, but it would be nice to allow all types of flags for that step :slight_smile:

Yea, especially because it is designed to help a new user feel comfortable flagging a post. Setting them up for success = winning.

I’m comfortable calling this a feature rather than a bug - I see the point.

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This is strange because I made the bot respond to all none custom flag types when the tutorial was added.

Are there any specific steps you took when you got stucked? Currently I’m unable to reproduce this locally or on your site.

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I tried here on Meta with the “Something Else” flag and it does break the flagging step. Based on flag_types_without_custom.values, I’m assuming selecting the “Something Else” option doesn’t work since there is a custom value involved.

I really like that flag given its versatility. While I can’t think of a true downside to having all of the flag options visible, I have considered hiding all but “Something Else” and modifying the text to further convey a general usage. Just a simpler UI presentation to users.

If allowing the “Something Else” flag to continue the step is not an option (it would be nice if it was :slightly_smiling_face:), I guess another idea would be to hide it or disable it specifically for the discobot tutorial.

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So @outofthebox I dispute the premise of this topic; almost any flag type will work except “something else” which is a PM to staff and requires typing in a custom reason.

Also in the discobot narrative, the user is explicitly told to use the “offensive” flag type, on top of that.

The problem isn’t that something-else doesn’t work (it’d be fine if Discobot replied back with “Oh no! You didn’t use the right flag type!” the same way it does when you reply without flagging the post). The problem is that, when the user takes this ill-advised action, the tutorial becomes deadlocked instead of giving them a chance to try again.

By the way, I’m actually able to un-deadlock the tutorial by posting a reply and then flagging Discobot’s “oh no, my nasty post hasn’t been flagged yet” response :smile:

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Shouldn’t be the case – the bot will post a “hey, haven’t seen you in a while, want to continue?” message eventually.

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Yeah, but that’s still a soft lock and requires a “skip” command to keep going.

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The bot is designed for a new user who feels uncomfortable with forum software so they try discobot to learn the ropes, right? I think if there are ways the new user can make discobot fail, that is an area worth improving, if the resources required to do it aren’t unreasonably high.

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I’ve just tested this on https://try.discourse.org. If the “Something else” flag is selected, the tutorial does not resume - no instructions are given to the user. The tutorial can be resumed by posting @discobot resume tutorial.

The response that is given when the tutorial is resumed is not very clear:

Oh no, my nasty post hasn’t been flagged yet. Can you flag it as inappropriate using the flag (icon.)

This response should let the user know that they need to flag the latest discobot post. It is not possible to flag the “nasty” post that the discobot is referring to.

Edit: it is possible that I didn’t wait long enough for the tutorial to resume after the failed flag step. I waited a few minutes, but on try, it seems to take 10 minutes for the discobot’s “just checking in because I haven’t heard from you in a while” post to be created.

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Just to chime in here—I just had a user get confused because of this. Sure, he didn’t follow the instructions exactly right, but the tutorial could be more forgiving and resume quickly.

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We’re having the same issue. A few of our members flagged the Discobot message as “Something else” because they thought that was the thing to do, and got stuck in the tutorial. :frowning: There doesn’t seem to be an obvious way for a newbie to go back and flag the post again once the “wrong” flag has been cast, which confuses and frustrates them.

Perhaps “Something else” flags could be counted as part of the tutorial, to avoid this deadlock?

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4 posts were split to a new topic: Discobot tutorial gets stuck if ‘something else’ flag type is selected

Discobot shouldn’t freeze up here anymore when “something else” is selected.

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